Reporting of Carbon content in working plan document of Bhadravathi, Shivamogga, India

Reporting of Carbon content in working plan document of Bhadravathi, Shivamogga, India

Forest-PLUS has assisted the Bhadravathi Forest Division of Shivamogga Circle in calculation of carbon content and write a chapter on carbon stock in working plan document

The Bhadravathi Forest Division in Shivamogga circle extends on either side of the Bhadra River and on the right-bank of the Tunga River. The division consists seven ranges viz. Ajjampura, Bhadravathy, Tarikere, Shantisagar, Lakkavalli, Channagiri and Umblebyle. The forest type present in the region is dry and moist deciduous with extensive patches of small bamboo (Dendrocalamus Strictus) of good quality. The forests in some of the ranges are extensively exposed to deforestation and forest degradation which results in decreasing the carbon content of the forest area in the division.

The Partnership for Land Use Science (Forest-PLUS) Technical Assistance Program a five-year USAID funded bilateral program overseen by the MoEF&CC is involved in Bhadravathi Forest Division in developing, testing and deploying Tools, Techniques, and Methods (TTMs) for better decision making in managing forest resources.

Apart from this Forest-PLUS team has also written a chapter on carbon stock which is included in the working plan document of the Division which will provide guidance to the forest department to calculate the carbon content of forests of the division in future. The Forest-PLUS team has assisted the Bhadravathi Forest Division in a preliminary calculation of carbon content of the division which is also detailed in the working plan document. It was concluded from the calculation that majority of the carbon is sunk by two species viz. Tectona spp. and Terminalia spp. The preliminary carbon stock of Bhadravathi division showed that there are 126.85 tons of carbon per hectare in the living biomass of natural forest area in Bhadravathi division. This preliminary carbon assessment forms the basis of detailed stratified sampling that will be undertaken to calculate the total carbon stored in the natural forests of the division.